James Hammond is a senior lecturer in geophysics at Birkbeck, University of London/University College London. His research is focussed on geophysically imaging magma plumbing systems beneath volcanoes with 50 publications in international journals. He has worked on volcanoes all over the world, including a number straddling international borders in regions undergoing significant political strain such as Ethiopia-Eritrea and China-North Korea. Most recently he has led the Mt. Paektu Geoscientific Group (MPGG thempgg.wordpress.com), a consortium of UK-North Korea-US scientists studying Mt. Baekdu volcano. This project, ongoing since 2011, included deploying 6 seismometers on Mt. Baekdu and collecting a number of geological samples. It has led to 4 publications in international journals as well as working with North Korean scientists to present results at international conferences in China, North Korea and UK.